National Optical Astronomy Observatories National Optical Astronomy Observatories Quarterly Report October - December 1987 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. SCIENTIFIC HIGHLIGHTS 2 A. Observations at CTIO 2 B. M31: New Insight into the Nearest Spiral Galaxy 3 C. South Pole Observing Run 3 D. Magnetic Fields Near HH Objects: Clues to the Collimation of Outflows 4 E. IR Imaging of L1551-IRS5: Inside Collimated Outflows 4 F. Rings and Trumpets: Three Dimensional 1^ -k -co Diagrams 4 G. Light Pollution Report y 5 III. PERSONNEL 6 A. Visiting Scientists 6 B. New Appointees 6 C. Terminations 6 D. Change of Status 7 IV. INSTRUMENTATION AND NEW PROJECTS 8 A. Advanced Development Program 8 B. Instrumentation Projects 9 V. TELESCOPE OPERATIONS 14 A. Kitt Peak National Observatory . 14 B. Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory 14 C. National Solar Observatory 15 VI. PROGRAM SUPPORT 17 A. Director's Office 17 B. Publications and Information Resources 17 C. Central Computer Services 17 D. Central Administrative Services 18 E. Central Facilities Operations 18 Appendices A. Telescope Usage Statistics B. Observational Programs C. NOAO Annual Safety Report I. INTRODUCTION In the first quarter of FY 1988, AURA and NOAO submitted a proposal for AURA management and operation of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, to the National Science Foundation. The proposal was widely distributed. The Director of the National Solar Observatory/Associate Director, NOAO resigned and Dr. Sidney Wolff formed a search committee. The Manager of NOAO's Public Information Office also resigned during this quarter. The AURA Observatories Visiting Committee presented its final report to the Director, NOAO and to AURA from its September visit to Sacramento Peak. H. SCIENTIFIC HIGHLIGHTS A. Observations at CTIO. The advent of the infrared imager at CTIO afforded a unique new opportunity to do high-resolution mapping in the infrared. The imager provides seeing-limited observations on the 4-m, with a resolution of better than 1 arcsec. J. Elias (CTIO) has observed a set of the more prominent Magellanic Cloud star formation regions with the Imager and the 4-m and 1.5-m telescopes in order to study their structure in the infrared. A sample of luminous, compact objects have been selected using a combination of available ground-based data (still relatively sparse) and the complete far-infrared data provided by IRAS. Individual regions of star formation have been observed at all wavelengths, including far-infrared observations by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS). Most have visible counterparts or radio counterparts. To date, though, any attempt at studying the structure of these regions has been limited in the infrared by relatively low resolution of conventional photometric maps-typically no better than 5 arcsec. Resolutions of this order correspond to linear distances in the Clouds of over a parsec, yet most of the interesting structure in regions of active star formation is likely to be on scales a few times smaller, judging from observations of galactic sources. The quasar IRAS 00275=2859, redshift 0.28, was discovered in October 1987 during a redshift survey with the CTIO l-m/2D-Frutti instrument by P. Vader (Yale). It is the second quasar discovered from the IRAS data base. Its far-infrared colors are typical of previously known active nuclei, with a luminosity at 60 microns of 10**12 solar luminosities. It belongs to the high energy tail of the most luminous quasars at 60 microns. It is radio-quiet and has an optical spectrum characterized by very strong Fe II emission. UBV imaging with the 0.9-m/CCD system resulted in the detection of a host galaxy system which consists of three distinct parts: the central QSO source, a second fainter point source, and an extended low surface brightness region. Spectroscopy of the QSO has been obtained with the 4-m/Air Schmidt camera/CCD, and will be used to investigate the spectral type of the stellar population and estimate the strength of the burst of star formation. Deep 4-m PFCCD B and V images of the QSO system have been obtained in order to better study the morphology of the interaction as revealed by the low surface brightness features. This research will contribute to our understanding of the importance of galaxy interactions and merging for the quasar phenomenon and the fact that QSO host galaxies are significantly more luminous than the general population of galaxies. December 1987 saw the first use of the new 1.5-m fiber fed echelle system, with the detector actually located in the 1.5-m coude room instead of the 4-m. The much shorter fiber run should improve throughput significantly. P. Gamavich (U. of Washington) began a program to measure radial velocities of wide binary candidates at the south galactic pole. Because collisions of stars and clouds can be modelled, wide binaries are excellent tools for probing the characteristics of dark matter in the galaxy. For example, Bahcall (Princeton) et al. derived an upper limit of 2M© on the mass of objects that constitute the dark matter. This estimate was based on the largest separation seen in a sample of only eight wide binaries. The same sample was used by Hut and Tremaine to estimate the lifetime of the Oort cloud of comets, and to test the existence of the hypothetical Solar companion, Nemesis. Because of the large separation between components of a wide binary, it is difficult to distinguish them from chance alignments of unrelated stars; thus, there exists a bias against these objects in the binary star catalogs. Latham (CFA) et al. showed that the radial velocities of the candidate pairs can be used to differentiate between a chance alignment of two stars and a true binary. Latham found eight bound pairs and, at present, these constitute the only scientifically selected sample of wide binaries in existence. Using the fiber-fed echelle, T. Lutz (Washington State U.) and T. Ingerson (CTIO) achieved accuracy of the radial velocity measurements near one km/s. B. M31: New Insight into the Nearest Spiral Galaxy. The spiral galaxy M31 is the nearest large galaxy, and for some time it has been thought to be similar to our own and to be quiescent in nature. These ideas may have to be modified, for not only are differences in the stellar populations between the two galaxies becoming apparent, there is in addition growing evidence that the center of M31 may share some of the characteristics of active galactic nuclei. An important new contribution to this investigation is a recent study of deep images and spectroscopy of the ionized gas in the central region of M31. R. Ciardullo (KPNO), V. Rubin (Carnegie Inst.), G. Jacoby (KPNO), H. Ford (STScI), and W. Ford (Carnegie Inst.) have combined 334 CCD frames taken with the KPNO #1 0.9-m telescope to produce detailed images of the ionized gas in the central bulge of M31. These data are supplemented by spectroscopy of the region obtained with the KPNO 4-m and Palomar 5-m telescopes. The narrow band images reveal a spiral-like filamentary structure in the ionized gas which appears more face on than the large stellar disk of the galaxy. Filaments of emission lines extend to 500 pc from the center, and spectroscopy of the forbidden sulfur lines shows the gas density to decrease by a factor of 100 in the central arcmin of the galaxy. These data, together with the observed gas kinematics and the lack of a significant amount of interstellar gas in the bulge region, all argue for the presence of a galactic wind in M31. The presence of such a wind, similar to that found in more active galaxies, could indicate a different evolutionary history for the center of M31 than for the rest of the galaxy. Such a conclusion is also supported by the indication of a more face-on orientation for the ionized gas in the center of the galaxy. C. South Pole Observing Run. In 1981, a joint project between NSO, Bartol Research Foundation and NASA led to an expedition to the South Pole to observe solar oscillations. The advantages of such an exotic observing site are no night time (during the summer), only a slowly changing solar elevation and excellent sky conditions. The disadvantages are great distance, high altitude and low temperatures. Our 1981 observations were successful and comparison of our measured frequencies of solar oscillations with similar, later measurements made elsewhere showed some small discrepancies that we were unable to assign to observational sources. Equipment was set up and data taking started on November 13. During the next two and one-half weeks about 290 hours of observations for an overall duty cycle of about 2/3 were recorded. The longest single run was more than 70 hours. Some instrumental problems were encountered, the main one being scattered light produced within the instrument but this should be adequately correctable during data reduction. Transcription of the data tapes has started and some results should be available next quarter. D. Magnetic Fields Near H H Objects: Clues to the Collimation of Outflows. Herbig Haro objects and their associated optical jets of shock excited gas are indicators of collimated, high speed outflow from young stellar objects. Recent studies of these objects show that the outflows tend to be aligned with neighboring flows nearby, and that they are often aligned with the large scale magnetic field in the surrounding interstellar medium. The nature of the collimation mechanism is not well understood, and a natural suggestion that arises from this observed alignment is that the large scale field geometry plays some role in the collimation mechanism.